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The Dog Days Of Summer
Do you sometimes hear phrases or idioms that make you think: "Where did that come from? Where did it originate? or, What does it mean?" Well, you're not alone. These things drive me buggers too. Usually I accidentally mix 'em up, but they have always intrigued me. They also make great fodder for storytelling.
The Dog Days of Summer
The dog days or dog days of summer are the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star Sirius(The Dog Star), which Greek and Roman astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck.
Not too recently, I wrote a story entitled "The Living Daylights"
The living daylights is an archaic idiom in English believed to be early 18th century slang for somebody's eyes that subsequently figuratively referred to all vital senses.The earliest recorded reference to this term comes from the 1752 novel Amelia by Henry Fielding, in which a character states his readiness to physically assault a particular woman: "If the lady says another such words to me ... I will darken her daylights." The idiom is now generally used only as part of a wider expression to express intensity in a negative manner, most commonly in the form "to scare the living daylights out of someone" or "to beat the living daylights out of someone."
How about this one: Curiosity Killed The Cat
There is an older form of this expression that goes: "Care killed the cat." The word 'care,' in this case, seems to be defined as "worry" or "sorrow." This form of the expression goes back to at least the 16th century. It's used by a few playwrights during that time. For example, an English playwright named Ben Jonson is said to have used it in a play called Every Man in His Humour, 1598. Another playwright, William Shakespeare, used the expression in the play Much Ado About Nothing, which is thought to have been written in 1599: "What, courage man! what though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care."
The earliest that I could find of the modern phrase being used in writing is from a book by James Allan Mair called Proverbs and Family Mottoes, 1891, where it's simply listed as a proverb on one of the pages.
Kill Two Birds With One Stone
In the Greek Mythology tale of Daedalus and Icarus. Daedalus is held captive by King Minos on Crete in a high tower. All he is able to see are high walls around him and large birds overhead awaiting his and his son, Icarus’ demise. Daedalus devises a plan to throw stones at the birds in the hope of fashioning artificial wings to enable the pair to fly home. He finds, with his stone through a clever throwing motion, that he is able to strike one bird with the ricochet hitting a second bird, thus killing two birds with one stone. The rest is history.
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
'Let sleeping dogs lie' derives from the long-standing observation that dogs are often unpredictable when they are suddenly disturbed. Geoffrey Chaucer was one of the first to put this notion into print, in Troilus and Criseyde, circa 1380, although the belief itself may well be much older: "It is nought good a slepyng hound to wake."
Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Basket
Don't rely too much on one resource or one line of effort; to risk everything on a single venture.The same thought was embodied in a proverb now forgotten: 'Venture not all in one bottom.' Giovanni Torriano, writing on popular phrases in 1666, used one expression to define the other: 'To put all ones Eggs in a Paniard, viz., to hazard all in one bottom." From From "The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985). 'Tis the part of wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket. (Cervantes, _Don Quixote_, 1605-)
I could go on and on. There are so many of these phrases in every language. My favorite is:
Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover
The origin of the idiom 'don’t judge a book by its cover' is fairly recent. The phrase is attributed to a 1944 edition of the African journal American Speech: “You can’t judge a book by its binding.” It was popularized even more when it appeared in the 1946 murder mystery Murder in the Glass Room by Lester Fuller and Edwin Rolfe: “You can never tell a book by its cover.”
Until Next Time,
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DEAD LETTERS
Derrol Edwards- Fantasy Writer 
Never do anything unless you plan to do it to the best of your ability" awesome! Think I needed to hear that right now :)
blimprider
R.e., "You Gotta Write," your essay could have been mine. I know exactly how you feel. It's gotten to where, when a block of free time comes up, the first thing I think is, "I can do some writing..." And then it doesn't happen. I'll do anything to avoid that keyboard, up to and including household chores or running errands. Maybe it will come back, and maybe it won't, but if can offer you what I've learned from this ongoing bout of frustration, "You Gotta Relax!" A very touching read. Hope you sort it out soon!
Quick-Quill 
I wish I could give you a shot of "writing potion" Yes, I've been there. I went for months just playing. I read others writing and worked on stuff I had in progress, but I felt I was in a state of suspension. Then one day I snapped out of it. I had a prompt that hooked me and I started writing it. Then another story came to me, then I joined another writing site where I posted chapters of my book each week and got immediate response. I've still got a few chapters left to post, but by the time I'm done I feel I have enough progress on it to begin looking for either an editor or some beta readers. [snap!] It will come back.
Graham B. 
I know the feeling, having gone through something similar. What I've found is that you just need to make yourself do it, no matter how uninspired you might feel. Of course, it might depend on whether you rely on writing to put food on the table, which is a great motivator. This makes me think of an interview with Neil Gaiman, who said that if you only write when you are inspired, you might make a good poet, but never a novelist. He went on to say that if you go back and read what you wrote on the good "inspired" days, and compared it to what you wrote on the bad days, you can't tell the difference. I found these to be very reassuring words from one of our great contemporary writers.
Louisa Mullerworth
Hi, how often does this get circulated? I would love to write for it.
You can write for it by requesting to be an editor to The StoryMistress  . But, the rules state you have to be a Blue case.
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Horror/Scary: August 08, 2018 Issue [#9039]
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